Nicola Sturgeon denies ‘short term pressures’ behind resignation as Scottish first minister – UK politics live | Politics

Nicola Sturgeon has said “I intend to be there” when Scottish independence is won.

Speaking in Edinburgh, Sturgeon said:

Winning independence is the cause I have dedicated a lifetime to. It is a cause I believe in with every fibre of my being. And it is a cause I am convinced as being won.

I intend to be there as it is won, every step of the way.

She said that attending the funeral of a friend and “longstanding independence activist” solidified her decision, adding:

His funeral reminded me that the cause of independence is so much bigger than any one individual. That all of us who believe in it, contribute in different ways at different stages of our lives.

Since I was 16, I have contributed as an activist and campaigner and a leader. And so now as we look to what I firmly believe, is the final stage in Scotland’s journey to independence, albeit a hard one, I hope to use all the experience and perspective I’ve gathered over these years to help get us there.

Nicola Sturgeon said standing down as first minister would “free” the SNP to take a decision on how best to pursue independence “without worrying about the perceived implications for my leadership”.

Speaking in Edinburgh, Sturgeon said:

I feel that duty first and foremost to our country to ensure that it has the energy of leadership that it needs not just today but through the years that remain of this parliamentary term.

And right now, in a very particular sense, I feel that duty to my part too. We are at a critical moment. The blocking of our referendum as the accepted constitutional route to independence is a democratic outrage.

My preference of using the next Westminster election as a de facto referendum is well known.

But she added:

I have always been clear that decision must be taken by the SNP collectively, not by me alone, but I know my party well enough to understand that my view as leader would carry enormous, probably decisive, weight, when our conference meets next month.

And I cannot in good conscience ask the party to choose an option based on my judgment whilst not being convinced that I would be there as leader to see it through.

By making my decision clear now I free the SNP to choose the path it believes to be the right one without worrying about the perceived implications for my leadership.

Sturgeon discussed the polarising discourse experienced by staying as first minister so long.

She said:

I feel more and more each day now that the fixed opinions people increasingly have about me, some fair and others a little more than caricature, are being used as barriers to reason debate in our country.

Statements and decisions that should not be controversial at all quickly become so. Issues that are controversial end up almost irrationally so.

Too often I see issues presented as a result viewed, not on their own merits, but through the prism of what I think and what people think of me.

I’ve always been of the belief that no one individual should be dominant in any system for too long.

She added:

If all parties were to take the opportunity to depolarise public debate just a bit, to focus more on issues that on personalities, and to reset the tone and the tenor of our discourse, then this decision, right for me, and I believe my party and the country, may also prove good for politics.

Continuing her resignation speech, Nicola Sturgeon said being first minister and deputy first minister is a “privilege”.

She said:

But they are also really hard and especially in the case of first minister relentlessly so.

Now to be clear, I’m not expecting violins here. But I am a human being as well as a politician.

She added:

My point is this, giving absolutely everything of yourself to this job is the only way to do it. The country deserves nothing less.

But in truth that can only be done by anyone for so long. For me, it is now in danger of becoming too long.

A first minister is never off duty, particularly in this day and age there is virtually no privacy. Even ordinary stuff that most people take for granted like going for a coffee with friends or for a walk on your own becomes very difficult.

Nicola Sturgeon said she no longer felt she could give the job of first minister everything it deserved, and said she felt she had a duty to say so now.

Speaking in Edinburgh, Sturgeon said leading Scotland through the pandemic is “by far the toughest thing I’ve done”, adding the weight of responsibility was “immense”.

“It’s only very recently I think that I’ve started to comprehend, let alone process, the physical and mental impact of it on me.”

She went on:

If the only question was ‘can I battle on for another few months?’, then the answer is yes, of course I can.

But if the question is, ‘can I give this job everything it demands and deserves for another year, let alone for the remainder of this parliamentary term – give it every ounce of energy that it needs in the way that I have strived to do every day for the past eight years?’ – the answer honestly is different.

And as that is my decision, hard though it has been for me to reach it, then given the nature and scale of the challenges the country faces, I have a duty to say so now.

Nicola Sturgeon said there needed to be a new SNP leader to make the argument for Scottish independence.

The first minister told a press briefing her party was “firmly on course to win the next election, while our opponents remain adrift”.

She added:

The longer any leader is in office, the more opinions about them become fixed and very hard to change, and that matters.

Individual polls come and go, but I am firmly of the view that there is now majority support for independence in Scotland.

But that support needs to be solidified and it needs to grow further if our independent Scotland is to have the best possible foundation.

To achieve that, we must reach across the divide in Scottish politics and my judgment now is that a new leader would be better able to do this.

Someone whom the mind of almost everyone in the country is not already made up, for better or worse. Someone who is not subject to quite the same polarised opinions, fair or unfair, as I now am.

Sturgeon says she has been ‘wrestling’ with resignation for ‘some weeks’

Nicola Sturgeon says she knows the “time is now” for her to stand down as Scotland’s first minister, adding that it is “right for me, for my party and for the country”.

She said:

I know there will be some across the country who feel upset by this decision and by the fact I am taking it now.

Of course, for balance, there will be others who – how can I put this – will cope with the news just fine, such is the beauty of democracy.

But for those who do feel shocked, disappointed, perhaps even a bit angry with me, please be in no doubt this is really hard for me.

My decision comes from a place of duty and of love. Tough love perhaps but love nevertheless for my party and, above all, for the country.

Nicola Sturgeon resigns as Scottish first minister

Sturgeon resignation news conference about to begin